Keywords

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory
disease that affects the central nervous system and causes
gradual destruction of myelin. Inflammation of the optic
nerve (optic neuritis, ON) is a common symptom at the
onset of MS. Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) have been
widely used as diagnostic tools for ON as they can detect
the malfunctioning of visual pathways. Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has also been used
to identify impaired visual brain function in ON patients.
As VEPs and fMRI have complementary features (high
temporal resolution and high spatial resolution,
respectively), the integration of simultaneously recorded
VEP and fMRI might provide more detailed information
on the cortical representation of the visual stimulus, thus
improving the diagnosis of ON.
In this work, we present a method for simultaneous
acquisition of EEG signals and fMRI. More specifically,
we show that reliable VEPs can be obtained during fMRI
acquisition and, conversely, sequences of MR images of
good quality can be obtained in presence of EEG
electrodes in the MRI bore. On the basis of these
preliminary results, we suggest that the simultaneous
recording of VEP and fMRI is feasible and can be used in
studying ON.